Florida high school teacher under investigation after drowning raccoons in class

A Florida high school agriculture teacher is under fire after he was filmed drowning two wild raccoons in a garbage bin during class with his students.

Dewie Brewton has been placed on administrative leave from Forest High School in Ocala after a freshman student leaked the shocking footage.

The mother of the student who filmed Brewton’s class said her son was in tears when he revealed what had happened to the two raccoons in agriculture class on Monday.

Footage from the class shows a raccoon in a metal wire trap being dunked into a garbage bin that has been filled with water.

Dewie Brewton has been placed on administrative leave from Forest High School in Ocala, Forida after footage revealed he had drowned two raccoons in his agriculture class

Footage of the class shows a raccoon in a metal wire trap being dunked into a garbage bin that has been filled with water to drown it

Multiple students can be seen helping with the drowning, while others stand around and watch.

‘It made me sick,’ the mother, who asked to remain anonymous, told WKMG. ‘It made me sick to my stomach.’

‘It’s terrible. It still does make me sick to my stomach.’

The mother said Brewton, who has worked at the school since 2006, ‘pinned’ the raccoons and caught them in cages before he ‘had the children drown’ them.

She claims the raccoons were held down with metal rods when they tried to come up for air.

The mother said Brewton, who has worked at the school since 2006, ‘pinned’ the raccoons and caught them in cages before he ‘had the children drown the raccoons’

The mother said that Brewton decided to kill the raccoons because it ate a chicken that the class had been raising

In one video, students can be seen pouring water into the raccoon’s cage as it sits in the garbage bin

‘When the raccoon would try to pop its head up they held water hoses in its face to drown it,’ she added.

The mother said that Brewton decided to kill the raccoons because it ate a chicken that the class had been raising.

She told Kron 4 that Brewton threatened to give a ‘referral’ to any student in the class who recorded or took pictures of the drowning.

‘[My son] knew while it was happening that it was wrong, so he did it anyway and stood behind people hiding, taking pictures and videos,’ she said.

In one video, students can be seen pouring water into the raccoon’s cage as it sits in the garbage bin.

‘Why is he not fighting?’ one person asks in the clip as the raccoon sits in the garbage bin filled with water.

Brewton was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday and the incident is being investigated by Marion County Public School officials.

Brewton was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday and the incident is being investigated by Marion County Public School officials

‘While law enforcement tells us the teacher did not do anything illegal, his actions before students are certainly questionable,’ a spokesperson told WKMG.

‘The district is determining the status of the teacher at this moment.’

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is also investigating and officers from the FFWCC were at the school on Tuesday.

It released a statement on Tuesday saying it was ‘looking into’ the incident and that officers are determining ‘the legality of what occurred’, according to OCALA.

The FFWCC will present its findings to the state attorney’s office, which will then determine whether Brewton will face criminal charges.

Forest High School’s Future Farmers of America Alumni Chapter has since rallied around Brewton, who is the group’s adviser.

Forest High School’s Future Farmers of America Alumni Chapter has since rallied around Brewton, who is the group’s adviser

‘We would like to say that we are 100 percent behind our adviser and everything he does for our children/students,’ the statement, posted on Facebook, reads.

‘This is a man who would give everything he had to make sure that his children/students are taken care of. He has always gone above and beyond his call of duty to ensure that his students had everything they needed.’

‘He has spent late nights, weekends and has provided around the clock support for his club and for his school.’

‘We must focus on all of the extremely positive and life changing things that this man has done for people.’

But the mother of the student who filmed the incident remains unconvinced that the raccoons were handled in the appropriate manner.

‘I don’t think that’s the way to treat any animal,’ she said. ‘Whether it is a raccoon or (another animal) you just don’t torture an animal and kill it like that.’